The life of average college students
by Highgaylowgpa
Summary: Edward has "grown-up" and gone off to college but that doesn't mean he's not going to get into trouble while there.
1. Chapter 1

'Every night I go down to the lobby vending machines I smell the best cooking ever coming from your apartment and it's 12 pm but I'm really hungry and the vending machines aren't cutting it for me' AU

P.S. kind of also a college AU

P.P.S this is not my prompt I just wrote the story

P.P.P.S James is whatever you want them to be?

P.P.P.P.S I'm not in college nor have I ever been to college therefore I have no idea how this works.

Between the moaning going on in the next room over and the fact that Edward couldn't cook for the life of him, he was starting to hate moving into a dorm room. At this point, maybe it would be a good thing to move back in with his parents. There maybe no privacy but at least there is free homecooked meals three times a day. Before deciding anything though, he went to talk to his best mate, Adewale, who told him to get on a schedule and trying it out a bit before actually putting anything is stone.

Thus the routine began, every night while the next guy over was getting some, Edward would leave with a few bucks of change in his hand down the three sets of stairs that separated him from his supper/midnight snack. He would also take his time getting it and then eating it before making his way back up the stairs all the way up to his room where the banging, literally and figuratively, had stopped. But his routine, unknowingly to him, also collided with someone else's routine.

Every night when Edward left his room he could smell food cooking and every night it was something different. The first few nights he tried to ignore it sniffing once, quickly making his way downstairs, then he would wait long enough that the smell would be gone by the time he got back up there. By the time a whole week had gone by though Edward had cracked, he began by going door to door and sniffing around them like a madman hoping that miraculously, like a bloodhound, he could sniff out the bandit that was making this delicious food every night. Walking through the hall he went door to door, making his way to the end of the hallway. In the middle of sniffing the last door, it suddenly opened up, shocking Edward and making him jump over to sit against the wall next to the door, quickly he grabbed his phone out of his pocket and pretended to be busy texting on it.

The door creaked open and a young man stepped out, he looked both left and right, barely glancing at Edward before stepping out of the doorway, closing the door and headed down the hall to the entrance of the stairs. The door slammed shut leaving delicious smelling air floating through the hallways. Stunned that he had finally figured out who's dorm the smell was coming from he stood there, leaned up against the wall thinking about what to do next. After some time he decided that instead of just waiting there forever he should follow the man downstairs and see what he is up to at 1 o'clock in the morning, besides the vending machine was down there way anyway.

Taking his time, he played games on his phone while making his way down the stairs. Usually, Edward would try not to walk and be on his phone at the same time but it is too early for anybody to actually be up and crash into him. At least that's what he thought, coming around the stairs corner where the first floor began he bumped into somebody, not just anybody either but the guy who cooks good food in the middle of the night.

"Whoops, sorry." The mysterious man said nonchalantly. "You never really expect to see anybody else up this late at night."

Edward stepped back and nodded understandingly. "That's exactly what I was thinking. I've come down almost every night and this is the first time I have seen anybody else. I thought nobody else was crazy enough to be up this late at night."

"Well, I usually take a walk outside earlier in the night but I got caught up talking to my sister. What's your excuse?" The man crossed his arms and nodded at him, waiting for his reason.

"I can't really cook without burning something so to save the rest of the people in these dorms from dying, I have decided to just come down here to the vending machines and get something else to eat." Edward tried to put all of his desperation into his story, hoping that this man might be willing to give up some of his food for him. All for the sake of Edward's stomach.

"I got some more then enough food upstairs if you want to come grab some." The man said walking around Edward and beginning up the stairs. "I'm James, by the way, and I am totally not a murderer."

"Edward," He replied. " and that sounds exactly like something a murderer would say. Who knows? Maybe your whole plan is to bring people in with delicious smelling food and then kill them and use them as food the next night." Both Edward and James chuckled for a second before they both began walking back up to their dorm floor.

"I am definitely not one," James spoke, stopping at his door. "I'm just somebody who learned to cook in large portions and now it's just me, alone, with too much food and not enough people." James opened the door and led Edward inside his dorm room. Looking around, Edward noticed how the smell of the food contributed to the homeyness of the dorm room. He walked closer to the pictures on the wall, while James made his way over, presumably to serve up some food.

"I hope you like stew!" James announced from the kitchen.


	2. A nice ending to a nice night

**So this is just a nice little ending to the first chapter. There will be more to come but first I wanted to just tie this night/day up..I've got a four-day weekend but I am not making any promises.. ;)**

"Anything's better than the vending machine dinners I've had every night," He said after realizing that James couldn't see him nodding from the other room. Edward looked away from the photographs hanging on the wall and walked towards where he saw James had gone earlier. " This looks as delicious as it smells," Edward told James as he pulled out a chair and sat down at the small table. James placed the bowls of stew onto the table and looked at Edward expectantly.

"What?" Edward asked slowly bringing the spoon of stew meat he had to his mouth back down to the bowl. "Are you one of those people who needs to pray before every meal? Should we be holding hands right now?"

James shook his head laughing under his breath. "No, but I thought that you might be I wanted to wait just in case. One can never be too careful." And on that note both James and Edward dug right in.

"So, I told you that I can't cook and that whole thing but you haven't told me why you cook at midnight. What is your thought process behind this?" Edward sat back, content with his full stomach and happy palate. For once he didn't have to eat vending machine food and with that his body was thankful.

"Timezone problems," James shrugged, leaning back. "I've spent a month living here, in America, but for some reason I just can't knock off the billions of years I spent living in Europe. Usually, I am up by now and making breakfast there but because it is still so early, or late, in the day, it's not quite time to make breakfast. Instead, I make whatever food I want, even if I don't want to eat it the moment it is ready, I can still package it up for my actual dinner tonight."

"That's a pretty good idea," Edward admitted. "then if you are tired after coming back from classes, you don't have to worry about making a meal or trying to find something you can actually eat. The foods already there for you just waiting to be heated up."

"Exactly," James stood up, grabbing both of their bowls. "I don't have to worry all day about what I have to make a decent dinner, the meal is already made. Did you want any more stew?" He turned around setting both of the bowls on the counter next to the sink.

"No, I am so stuffed," Edward replied standing up. "And now that I've had a good meal I am actually quite tired." He shuffled awkwardly for a second, unsure if he somehow missed the implied "everyone must wash their own bowls" thing that his parents do every time he comes over.

"Alright, before you leave though let me package some, I wouldn't want you to starve by the time morning comes around." James winked at Edward before packaging up stew into a tupperware container.

"Well, thank you for thinking about me," Edward replied. He grabbed the container from James's hand and walked to the door, James trailing right behind him. Opening the door, Edward turned around to say his goodbyes. "and thank you for the food altogether. It was delicious."

"You're welcome," James concluded." if you ever get sick and tired of vending machine food again and want some homemade food instead, you know where I live." And after a warm smile, James shut the door, leaving Edward out in the hallway grinning like a fool. Shaking himself out of it, he made his way back to his bedroom and found that his neighbor had finally fallen asleep which meant Edward could too.


End file.
